Monday, January 28, 2008

Want to delegitimize a disease? Get a drug approved for it!

Concerning Lyrica, the first drug ever FDA approved for the treatment of fibromyalgia, the New York Times has this to say:

For patient advocacy groups and doctors who specialize in fibromyalgia, the Lyrica approval is a milestone. They say they hope Lyrica and two other drugs that may be approved this year will legitimize fibromyalgia…

I’m not so sure. Although occasional experts through the years have been skeptical of the existence of fibromyalgia its status as a disease, by and large, has been secure for decades, well defined by textbooks and professional societies. But that won’t stop the pharmaceutical industry haters from suddenly, after all these years, crying “disease mongering!” “Medicalization!” It’s started already and we can expect it to ramp up substantially as Pfizer’s ad campaign picks up speed and other companies gain approval of their drugs for fibromyalgia. Corporate hatred will be fuelled as the new approvals become cash cows for some companies.

I think the Times has it bass ackwards. Fibromyalgia, a long established disease, will suddenly be questioned simply because drug companies stand to profit by it.

5 comments:

Anonymous
said...

I'm sorry, but fibromyalgia is not accepted as a disease by at least a significant majority of the medical community. There is yet no proven pathophysiologic basis for calling it a disease, and much of its acceptance in certain parts of the medical community appears to be more of an acquiescence to loud advocacy groups than science-based thinking. Read some of the articles by Nortin Hadler, M.D. before you join the bandwagon.

Anonymous:I realize that if you asked primary care doctors in the trenches whether fibromyalgia exists many of them would say, off the record, that it's bogus while in public would acknowledge that it's a disease, because it's almost politically incorrect nowadays to question its existence. On the other hand pain management specialists and rheumatologists would be more likely to acknowledge it.

Before writing this post I reviewed several sources including UpToDate which has one monograph citing quite a bit of evidence favoring a possible pathophysiologic basis (granted it's unclear).

The point is it has long been established in the literature as a disease (whether you or I think it's legit or not)and therefore is not in need of "medicalization" by the pharmaceutical industry. It was medicalized long before industry got a drug approved to treat it.

I'm one of many people suffered much pain of Fibromyalgia. I went from doctor to doctor to look for answers regarding my condition. It's really difficult to lead a normal life having this kind of illness.

But at one point, blessing came. For you to make feel better like anyone else, start attending to your kids activities again, feeling great and happy with the whole family, and enjoy life to the fullest.

Here's helpful information for all fibromyalgia sufferers.

Fibromyalgia is a condition where you feel chronic pain in certain parts of your body; it is a muscular pain especially around the joints. There can also be centralized pain felt in the spinal chord, brain, neck shoulders etc. People with fibromyalgia generally complain of pain in the joints, but it actually is the muscles and the tendons around it that cause the pain, it can be excruciating sometimes and can be a continuous throbbing pain. People suffering from Fibromyalgia also show symptoms of depression, sleeplessness, irritable bowel syndrome, stress and many others, which are caused due to the pain.

Rid Fibromyalgia provides a simple process to helps you eliminate all your symptoms of fibromyalgia and enjoy living your life again. This will provides us the best and most effective solutions on how to rid ourselves from pain.

The Rid Fibromyalgia provides an eBook entitled “Heal the Body” that will teach you the best diet that will allow you to eat your way to wellness, it will also document which vitamins and supplements will target and reverse the illness, how to achieve pain relief through acupuncture, what exercises are safe and will work, and what type of medications may make you sicker, and what will work. This eBook takes a step by step approach in showing you how to rid yourself of the pain naturally so that you can take back your life.

We must know the symptoms of this illness. For us to know what would be the approach we will going to apply. Here's Signs and Symptoms of Fibromyalgia and steps to treat it naturally.

We must also be responsible and aware to the things to gain and cope up with this kind of illness. Eating nutritious food with regular exercise would be result to a better life. Here's Basic Tips in Coping Fibromyalgia.

If we say Fibromyalgia Diet, there is no specific recommended diet for fibromyalgia. But a healthy diet rich in vitamins and minerals can certainly help in coping with the illness. Magnesium rich vegetables are recommended for patient's suffering from fibromyalgia. Here's some information for you to help in Fibromyalgia Diet.

We must also think that vitamins are important for Fibromyalgia sufferers. This will give us additional energy and strength to kept a healthy living. But of course, you must be aware that not all vitamins are effective or directly gives you a good result. Find the best vitamins that would easily give a good response if your taking it. The best thing is your healed and keep your body healthy as possible. Here's The Benefit of Vitamins for us to know why vitamins are important for fibromyalgia sufferers.

Also feel free to view this video Fibromyalgia Help. It really gives good information for those who have Fibromyalgia and encourage not to give up because in every pain your getting through has a good solution in the end.

About Me

Originally a traditional internist, I became a hospitalist in the early days of the “movement.” I'll be writing about clinical topics, mainly in hospital medicine. Occasionally politics and other stuff creep in. This content does not constitute medical advice (consult your physician) nor is it authoritative (check primary sources).